Atlus Persona 4 Golden - out on Steam

[Kjaska]

A real player penta-wields girlfriends.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Top persona girl:

 

[Arthandas]

Top persona girl:

 

[Tyrr]

If you want to pick someone outside the usual:

Surprisingly wholesome, if you get her good ending.

 

[Ivan]

I feel the game did teach me a harsh lesson, I went with Rise and it played out as "Yes, well done, you've bagged the popular girl. Now you have to listen to her talk about herself endlessly as you slowly die inside."

Occasionally she will throw you a bone saying how special you are at that specific point in time but she always makes it clear that you are completely disposable to her.

Chie is far and beyond the best girl. Fuck Rise. Marry Chie. Kill Yukiko.

me every time Rise butted in: can it WOMAN, I've already chosen Chie.

Would love to see a P4 sequel where the cast grows up and this time make Yukiko the killer

 

[Nifft Batuff]

You boomers don't have any good taste.

 

[Terra]

If you want to pick someone outside the usual:

Surprisingly wholesome, if you get her good ending.

Been a while since I played but I recall enjoying most of Ai's social link but iirc a good 2-3 stages of it amounted to maybe 2 lines and some ellipses, like they ran out of ideas. I remember it stood out to me as I thought the start of the link was good, then it tanks for a few levels, then finally recovers. Started and ended strong though. Maybe they improved it with Golden.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I'm about 35 hours into Persona 4 Golden. It's my first ever Shin Megami / Persona game ever. I appreciate how good it is. The portrayal of weird random Japanese quirks is awesome. The dullness of small town Japan is so accurate. The ugly riverfront concrete, with high voltage wires in background. I feel like most Western games are unable capture the vibe of a town at this level. They always go overboard with some stuff, the town becomes too quaint, too perfect, too awesome. The town of Inaba is so dull, yet so lovingly meticulous, and full of soul.

One more thing I appreciate is the responsiveness of all menus and interfaces. Player's time is not wasted.

Are all Persona games similar? Do they all share the social link mechanics, or is it something specific for Persona 4?

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm about 35 hours into Persona 4 Golden. It's my first ever Shin Megami / Persona game ever. I appreciate how good it is. The portrayal of weird random Japanese quirks is awesome. The dullness of small town Japan is so accurate. The ugly riverfront concrete, with high voltage wires in background. I feel like most Western games are unable capture the vibe of a town at this level. They always go overboard with some stuff, the town becomes too quaint, too perfect, too awesome. The town of Inaba is so dull, yet so lovingly meticulous, and full of soul.

One more thing I appreciate is the responsiveness of all menus and interfaces. Player's time is not wasted.

Are all Persona games similar? Do they all share the social link mechanics, or is it something specific for Persona 4?

Persona 3-5 have the same concept with social links.

 

[MasPingon]

I'm about 35 hours into Persona 4 Golden. It's my first ever Shin Megami / Persona game ever. I appreciate how good it is. The portrayal of weird random Japanese quirks is awesome. The dullness of small town Japan is so accurate. The ugly riverfront concrete, with high voltage wires in background. I feel like most Western games are unable capture the vibe of a town at this level. They always go overboard with some stuff, the town becomes too quaint, too perfect, too awesome. The town of Inaba is so dull, yet so lovingly meticulous, and full of soul.

Persona 4 is special in a way you described it. You won't experience this feeling in any other game.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I'm about 35 hours into Persona 4 Golden. It's my first ever Shin Megami / Persona game ever. I appreciate how good it is. The portrayal of weird random Japanese quirks is awesome. The dullness of small town Japan is so accurate. The ugly riverfront concrete, with high voltage wires in background. I feel like most Western games are unable capture the vibe of a town at this level. They always go overboard with some stuff, the town becomes too quaint, too perfect, too awesome. The town of Inaba is so dull, yet so lovingly meticulous, and full of soul.

Persona 4 is special in a way you described it. You won't experience this feeling in any other game.

I'm enjoying the whole social link mechanics connected to Persona leveling. I like the combat. I like the balance between adventure miniquests and combat progression grind. Even if other games aren't so small-town-japanese, I hope the rest of the stuff stays.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I'm about 35 hours into Persona 4 Golden. It's my first ever Shin Megami / Persona game ever. I appreciate how good it is. The portrayal of weird random Japanese quirks is awesome. The dullness of small town Japan is so accurate. The ugly riverfront concrete, with high voltage wires in background. I feel like most Western games are unable capture the vibe of a town at this level. They always go overboard with some stuff, the town becomes too quaint, too perfect, too awesome. The town of Inaba is so dull, yet so lovingly meticulous, and full of soul.

One more thing I appreciate is the responsiveness of all menus and interfaces. Player's time is not wasted.

Are all Persona games similar? Do they all share the social link mechanics, or is it something specific for Persona 4?

Persona 4 was also my first SMT game. Even more, it was my first JRPG that I played to completion. I played it in 2016 using a PS2 emulator. Since then I played almost all the SMT games (99% of them on emulators, lol)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Are they all on STEAM?

Nvm.. 3-5. I 'll have to look at the entries to this entire series.

Edit... oh lordy that's a bit. A big bit with spin-offs.

 

[StaticSpine]

Are they all on STEAM?

If you plan to play P3, get Reload but without that bullshit expansion. It's amazing.

P3 Portable is too dated.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Now, isn't golden actually a portable version (according to wiki)? Is it any less than the original Persona 4?

• Persona 4 is the fifth entry in the main series, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2008 in Japan and North America, and 2009 in Europe. The success of Persona 3 Portable inspired the creation of a portable version of Persona 4, titled Persona 4 Golden. As using the PSP would result in cutting too much content, it was instead developed for PlayStation Vita, which allowed for the addition of new features and content. A port of Golden was released for Windows in 2020, with ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S released on January 19, 2023. Persona 4 takes place in the rural town of Inaba, where a group of students investigate a series of killings related to a realm known as the Midnight Channel.

 

[StaticSpine]

Now, isn't golden actually a portable version (according to wiki)? Is it any less than the original Persona 4?

It's an enhanced version.
The original P2 was on PS2, Golden came first on PS Vita which was a later-generation console.
Golden has stuff that was not in the original.

 

[Tavar]

I'm enjoying the whole social link mechanics connected to Persona leveling. I like the combat. I like the balance between adventure miniquests and combat progression grind. Even if other games aren't so small-town-japanese, I hope the rest of the stuff stays.

You're in luck then. Both Persona 5 and Persona 3 Reload have much better combat than Persona 4 due to the "Baton Pass" mechanic. If you enjoyed Persona 4, you will like both of these as well.

 

[Talby]

You should avoid Golden and play the original PS2 release, either on the hardware or emulated. The Golden version butchered the game's visuals, taking away the distinctive thick fog effect as well as replacing most textures with ugly photorealistic ones. The added content is also poor and detracts from the game.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So is that gray haired guy a rapist or something hunting little schoolgirls? Looks like a creep.

 

[Arthandas]

You should avoid Golden and play the original PS2 release, either on the hardware or emulated. The Golden version butchered the game's visuals, taking away the distinctive thick fog effect as well as replacing most textures with ugly photorealistic ones. The added content is also poor and detracts from the game.

New content is absolutely great and the game looks a lot better - clear and vibrant. Original fog looks just like a gray fullscreen filter.
Also, I pity anyone playing it without the Community Enhancement Pack.

 

[Sergio]

So is that gray haired guy a rapist or something hunting little schoolgirls? Looks like a creep.

Yes you can totally role-play!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Uh huh. Oooookaaaayyyyy....

 

[Talby]

You should avoid Golden and play the original PS2 release, either on the hardware or emulated. The Golden version butchered the game's visuals, taking away the distinctive thick fog effect as well as replacing most textures with ugly photorealistic ones. The added content is also poor and detracts from the game.

New content is absolutely great and the game looks a lot better - clear and vibrant. Original fog looks just like a gray fullscreen filter.
Also, I pity anyone playing it without the Community Enhancement Pack.

It's a matter of taste, I think anyone playing Persona 4 for the first time should know the visuals were changed noticeably between versions and Golden is not just a straight upgrade over the original with no downsides. I respect your opinion and think you should be hunted and killed for what you believe.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The Fog is pretty much a plot point and adds to the atmosphere or "rural murder mystery" the plot has going on.

Interm of thematic visual Golden is straight downgrade. The narrative additions are nice but like all other expanded re-release, the mechanical addition in Golden/Royale/P3Remake makes the game significantly easier as you are fighting the same enemies with expanded Arsenal that's not a side grade but like additional feature you pile on top.

 

[ghostdog]

Holy shit, I can't believe they fucked up the visuals so much in golden.